ed rebellion?--By the former premises you must answer, yes.--Such
then is the case with the wretched _Africans_. They have a right to
resist your proceedings. They can resist them, and yet they cannot
justly be considered as rebellious. For though we suppose them to have
been guilty of crimes to one another; though we suppose them to have
been the most abandoned and execrable of men, yet are they perfectly
innocent with respect to you _receivers_. You have no right to
touch even the hair of their heads without their own consent. It is not
your money, that can invest you with a right. Human liberty can neither
be bought nor sold. Every lash that you give them is unjust. It is a
lash against nature and religion, and will surely stand recorded against
you, since they are all, with respect to your _impious_ selves, in
a state of nature; in a state of original dissociation; perfectly free.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 109: See Part II Chapter I second paragraph.]

[Footnote 110: See Part II Chapter IX last paragraph.]

* * * * *

CHAP. XI.

Having now considered both the _commerce_ and _slavery_, it
remains only to collect such arguments as are scattered in different
parts of the work, and to make such additional remarks, as present
themselves on the subject.

And first, let us ask you, who have studied the law of nature, and you,
who are learned in the law of the land, if all property must not be
inferiour in its nature to its possessor, or, in other words, (for it is
a case, which every person must bring home to his own breast) if you
suppose that any human being can have _a property in yourselves_?
Let us ask you appraisers, who scientifically know the value of things,
if any human creature is equivalent only to any of the trinkets that you
wear, or at most, to any of the horses that you ride: or in other words,
if you have ever considered the most costly things that you have valued,
as _equivalent to yourselves?_ Let us ask you rationalists, if man,
as a reasonable being, is not _accountable_ for his actions, and
let us put the same question to you, who have studied the divine
writings? Let us ask you parents, if ever you thought that you possessed
an _authority_ as such, or if ever you expected a _duty_ from
your sons; and let us ask you sons, if ever you felt an impulse in your
own breasts to _obey_ your parents. Now, if yo